Guilt-free basketball

The best thing about the NCAA Men’s South Regional being in town Thursday and Saturday at the Alamodome is the fact that it give me an excuse to write about it (and anything else pertaining to March Madness) with a clear conscience. Any event that draws 30,000 folks to S.A. at least partially intersects with Weekender Nation.

So here goes. Wheeee!

• During Texas A&M’s nailbiting victory over Louisville on Saturday, the TV camera showed the father of Aggie star Acie Law IV in the crowd. One of the announcers said he thought Acie III looked like Snoop Dogg, which actually wasn’t too far off. What was amazing was that the TV guy who brought it up broached the subject by asking his broadcast partner (I don’t recall their names) something like, “Do you like hip-hop?” His partner’s response: “I don’t know what that is.” Say what? You’re announcing a sport dominated by African American players and you don’t know what hip-hop is?

• Now that Texas is gone, everyone has an opinion on whether Longhorn star Kevin Durant will go pro or come back for another year. The Dallas Morning News’ Jean-Jacques Taylor says he’ll go, that his game won’t improve if he stays at UT. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Austin American-Statesman’s Kirk Bohls says he has some good reasons to stay.

I know at this point there’s only one question on your mind: “Robert, what do you think?” Glad you asked. I think he has at least four good reasons to stay:

1. If he goes, he’ll have ended a brief college career on the sourest possible note. Was that an ugly game or what? It was the first time all year the ‘Horns Kiddie Corps looked as young as they are.

2. He actually likes college. Imagine that.

3. He’s still a kid. In high school, LeBron James was a man among boys. Ohio State stud Greg Oden, mentioned with Durant as a possible top draft pick if both opt for the NBA now, looks closer to 30 than 20. Durant, who’s still 18, looks like a big, overgrown kid.

4. He won’t hurt his draft status. When UT soph LaMarcus Aldridge left last year, it was in part because he knew last year’s draft would be weak, since the high schoolers were being barred for the first time. And he stayed, Aldridge might have dropped several slots. Durant won’t drop at all — unless he gets hurt.

I could go on and on — he’s not ready for the pounding of an 82-game NBA season; he’ll go from a championship contender at UT to taking said lumps playing for Boston or Memphis.

C’mon Kevin. One more year. It can’t hurt.

• How’s your bracket? Mine was in really good shape after the first two days, not quite as good this morning. I got 28 of the 32 first-round games right, missing on Stanford (what was I thinking?), Duke, Arizona and Villanova. The latter two were losers of 8-vs.-9 games, which are tossups. My best first-round picks were the Winthrop upset of Notre Dame (I know Winthrop was a trendy upset pick, which is usually a good reason not to do it) and resisting the urge to pick any 5-vs.-12 upsets, mainly because it seemed like the 12s that usually pull off those upsets are now 5s.

I got 11 of the Sweet 16 teams, with Texas, Washington State, Virginia and Maryland among those letting me down. I called the UNLV upset of Wisconsin, but Memphis beating Nevada told me that I should have stopped at one Nevada team. And can I point out that three of my five misses (Texas, Virginia, Maryland) were 4-vs.-5 games, which also are pretty much toss-ups?

For the record, my Final Four is North Carolina, Florida, Kansas and A&M, with Kansas beating Carolina in the title game. Gee what do you think the storyline for that game might be?